Melissa Sather Email and Phone Number

Conduct and manage transit service planning projects for transportation agencies across the United States. Use both quantitative and qualitative analyses to develop recommendations for agencies that grow system ridership, respond to community mobility needs, and ensure the agency's financial sustainability. Work includes conducting on-board passenger surveys, collecting public input, analyzing ridership and service data to evaluate performance, brainstorming new service concepts, preparing written reports and Power Point presentations on findings and recommendations. Specific project work includes: DART Forward 2035 Year Five Update (Des Moines); RTA (Riverside) Comprehensive Operational Analysis and Ten-Year Transit Network Plan, NORTA (New Orleans) Service and Scheduling Review, and MAG (Phoenix) Transit Optimization Analysis.

BRicK Partners, LLC is a small housing and community development consulting firm that advises on best practices in affordable housing. For them I analyzed housing and employment data to determine the balance between housing supply and demand in target regions. I also researched and summarized regional housing plans and policies.

During my three summers at Vinson & Elkins LLP I worked on a wide range of projects. I analyzed documents to piece together information that aided attorneys in preparation for trial. I maintained excel spreadsheets to organize case information. Finally, I conducted research on topics such as OSHA regulations, land use laws, and legal precedent to develop background information for cases.

As an intern I participated in review of land development proposals to determine if they were eligible for approval by the Planning Commission. This involved detailed review of city ordinances and deed restrictions, Geographic Information Systems research, and presentations on my findings. I also researched the development of some of Houston's ordinances and summarized my discoveries into reports for the city's website.